[Orv Neisingh]

As I was on the airliner to my students location to begin his flight training in his Rotorway Exec 90, he was checking his chain master link by slowly turning the main rotor by hand while looking down through the window in the chain bath to inspect the master link of the drive chain. He inadvertently steadied himself by putting his other hand on the non -rotating swashplate. When the rotating swashplate came around his finger was crushed and torn open between the two. He was there alone and due to the one way clutch (Sprague) that prevented the rotor system from reversing, he had to push the rotors further to finish tearing through his finger to free it. I took this photo when he arrived back from the hospital emergency room. Be careful where you put your hands around moving parts.

Another area of control movement that may be an issue on your helicopter is that you should not fly with the passenger collective control installed unless flight training is taking place. When you fly solo you will usually need more right cyclic travel to offset the shift in CG to the left. I suggest you try this if you have not already done so: Install your passenger collective control. Now sit in the pilot seat of your helicopter, finished or not, and raise the collective to the normal flight position, about parallel with your center thigh. Now move the cyclic control to the right as far as you can. You will find that your right thigh may be sandwiched between the pilot's cyclic control and the passenger's collective control. Now lift your right leg out of the way and see how much more cyclic travel you are able to achieve without your leg in the way. This is why I advise all of my students to remove the center collective control while practicing their solo flight maneuvers.